Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry begins discussion on the target toward “substantially zero carbon emission in 2050” ― Examining the future of electricity and gas industry
On January 1st, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry(METI) and Agency for Natural Resources and Energy(ANRE) began discussions on the future of electricity and gas industry for carbon neutral in 2050. In addition to examining the issues on three viewpoints of “owners”, “retails and whole sale transactions” and “power generation and power supply investment”, next-generation power system will also be discussed.
METI and ANRE will further examine the issues include improvement of consumers’ access to the value of non-fossil energy, improvement on the business environment for retailers and power generation business operators, and securing power sources to achieve both “substantially zero carbon emission” and “stable supply”.
Study of the issues has begun at the Electricity and Gas Basic Policy Subcommittee (Chairman of the subcommittee: Dr. Hirotaka Yamauchi, Specially Appointed Professor at the graduate school of Hitotsubashi University) of Advisory Committee for Energy and Natural Resources (advisory body of the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry)
At the end of October last year, 2020, the study on the long term direction of competitive field of power generation and retail business had begun at the Electricity and Gas Basic Policy Subcommittee. In addition to this, they will add the viewpoint toward “substantially zero carbon emission” and the issues of the gas business, and deepen the examination including the power transmission and distribution business.
Based on the instructions from Hiroshi Kajiyama, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, to accelerate the study at the post-Cabinet press conference on January 15th, full-scale discussion was kicked off.
From the viewpoint of consumers, direct supply from renewable energy power generation business operators to consumers is considered. In addition, it aims to prepare certain level of summary on review of the value of the non-fossil energy trading market by around summer at the regulatory framework working group of Advisory Committee for Energy.
From the viewpoint of retails and whole sale transactions, the future of spot market is main issue to be discussed. For the review on the system in which former electricity business operators bid the price to the Japan Electric Power Exchange (JEPX) based on the marginal cost of power sources, they will deepen the examination on the ideas at the council of Electricity and Gas Market Surveillance Commission.
For the establishment of next generation electricity system, the surveillance committee will examine the consignment fee system reforms which encourage the utilization of distributed power system. At present, where demand and supply potential exist do not match.
For these issues, it aims to improve the trends by changing the consignment fee system reforms.